Into the Forest
by JuneLuxray
Summary: After a purple, squash-like ghost comes and kidnaps everyone in the town, the only left is Danny, who has his powers disabled until he can defeat the ghost. Can Danny defeat the ghost in human form? Or is he and everyone in town doomed?
1. Chapter 1

Danny smiled as he flew, taking in the morning sun that absorbed into his skin. He whistled a bit, closing his eyes in pleasure as he flew, hardly noticing the packed school bus under him on the ground. His white hair was bright, and the sun shone on it as he moved across the morning sky, letting his fingers dance through a few clouds. Finally noticing his school, he smiled and flew down to the boy's locker room, phasing through the ceiling, and making a smooth landing on his feet, and changed to his human form. He opened the door, and went out into the smelly hallway of his school. Approaching his locker, Tucker and Sam were waiting.

"Hey Danny." Tucker and Sam said together, and each gave him a high five. "You're awfully happy." Sam said with a smile. Danny grinned. "No ghosts last night- and none this morning, eith-" He was then interrupted by blue, frosty air escaping from his mouth. "Speak of the Devil." Tucker mumbled as Danny frowned, and jumped into his locker. Sam and Tucker stood in front of it, leaning against it so no one would look.

"I'm Goin' Ghost!" Danny whispered harshly to himself, and with hard textbooks against his back and the cold steel at his sides. The blue-white ring started at his midsection, and they then turned to two, and went up and down, leaving Danny Phantom in their place. Phasing out, he flew out of the building, and looked for the ghost. He flew down to the ground and stood, looking around a bit, stretching his neck back and forth to look in all directions. With the exception of the ground below him.

Two vines grew out and latched onto his wrists, holding him down. He screamed in surprise, and then a purple, squash-shaped head came out, it being attached to a long, thick vine that spiraled up, and then the head hung over, the neck bending. The head had two red eyes, surrounded by black. It had a large mouth with sharp 'teeth' formed by rips on the skin of the purple squash-like head which hung open a bit, and the head shook back and forth between about two feet steadily, slowly.

The creature's head moved back a bit, and opened it's mouth, looking as if it were taking a deep breath. Quickly it swiped at Danny, landing one purple tooth onto his skin about 1/4 of an inch, and pulled back as Danny screamed in pain, and he turned back into a human.

Then the creature swung it's head at the unexpecting teenager, and all Danny could remember before blacking out was the monster dropping him and heading toward the school...

* * *

"Oww...My head..." Danny groaned as he brought a hand to his head, wincing in pain. He sat up, and looked around.

Nothing_ looked _different, but Danny stood up to investigate the area curiously. Starting in the school, he was met by no people. No noise. Eerie silence was all that existed other than him in the hall.

"Hello?" Danny called out. "Anyone there?" He questioned. Passing a few classrooms, he peeked in and there was no one to be seen.

He frowned. Then he closed his eyes in an attempt to go ghost...But nothing happened. Looking down in horror, his eyes had only fear inside of them, and he ran to the school library. He was going to look up this ghost...

After searching on the internet (and closing a few annoying pop-ups) he finally found a page on the ghost that attacked him.

_"The Pursquash Ghost is a legend in Amity Park, Ohio. Outside the town, in the claimed to be haunted _Yebear Forest, _the monster will come every 1000 years and take all of the townsfolk or anyone nearby into it's chamber, and will eat the people, if the one human he allows to stay behind cannot defeat him in battle. It's also said that it has a non-deadly poison that it can use, disrupting the hero's greatest weapon in battle that he/she naturally has. Their power is returned once the monster is slain."_

Danny scowled at the page. "Great. So I can't use ghost powers. Looks like I'll have to take this on in human form. But...How am I going to defeat it?" Danny asked aloud, annoyed.

Placing an elbow onto the table, he tapped his fingers lightly on the desk subconsciously as he went into deep thought for a moment, before his eyes widened, and he sat up straight. "That...Might work." Danny mumbled to himself, and quickly sprinted out the doors and through the long hallways into his science classroom. He grabbed a bottle, and looked for the ectoplasm they were using for experiments the day before. Opening dusty, cobweb covered shelves, he looked through about three of them, before on the forth one his eyes caught a jar full of glowing green material. Or, better known as ectoplasm.

Grinning, he put his bottle aside and grabbed the cold jar, and slamming the shelf closed behind him, and sprinted back through the hallways again, this time to his history class, and placed the jar onto the dusty desk, and smiled at the things the teacher had brought to examine in the back of the room.

A sharp, old sword. Walking over slowly to the thing in awe, he picked up a textbook and threw it at the glass a few feet away, and the glass shattered down into many piece, and left was the sword.

Slowly taking it out carefully, Danny looked the object over for a moment, including the fancy, curved handle. But he then frowned and put it down.

"Well, what am I gonna do for armor?" He questioned. Then he snapped his fingers. "Of course!" He said. Walking over to the large, closed cabinet next to it, he opened it up and grinned at the contents.

Inside was a thick, leather jacket-like top, with steel protecting the arms and chest as well, the brown leather underneath it. For bottoms, there were plated black leather, and a steel, round shield. Pulling it all out, Danny laid it down on the table next to the sword. "Thank God for History Class." He said with a smile. Changing into the armor, **(AN: I'm not going into detail here. You know why, for the perverted fan girls out there.)** he then walked over and grabbed the jar of ectoplasm. Opening it, he moved over, and smeared it onto the sword and shield, which flashed green for a minute, before the flash disappeared, leaving them looking like nothing had ever happened.

Then, began to spread it onto the armor, which also flashed green and turned back to normal after a minute. Then Danny strapped the shield onto his arm, and holding the sword in one hand, he grinned.

"Pursquash, here I come."

**I don't own DP! Please review? It helps me want to write. :D**


	2. Chapter 2

Danny walked at a steady pace through a dark forest, the only sounds to reach his ears the clinking of iron plate against the leather covering his body, the crunching of leaves under his tough, brown soles of his iron-covered shoes. Little sunlight could get through the branches of the dark green fir trees, the only bright thing in the forest being some slivers of light escaping into the forest between pointy branches.

Taking a breath, Danny stopped on leaned on the dark brown thick base of a tree, eventually sliding down enough for his bottom to hit the rough ground, and took a quick swig of water from the bottle he'd brought along, letting it lazily stream down the sides of his mouth while drinking.

Sighing, he opened his sky blue eyes again. "Almost there..." He mumbled, pulling himself up wearily. Without his ghost powers, this was a much, much harder task.

"After I get my powers back, I'm taking my butt to the gym." Danny grumbled, beginning to walk briskly onward, for the quicker he moved, the quicker this would all be over.

After walking about a half-mile, he came across a cave, with tall grasses flourishing inside it. Tip toeing through the grass, he realized he could see across to the other side of the cave- it was only about thirty feet across, but raised an eyebrow at the bits of vegetation and fungi he could see ahead. After walking through, he stopped and examined the area around him. Odd, twitching round buds glowed in-between thick, dark green grasses with dark blue running down the middle, and every piece of grass was hunched over from it's own weight. There were also mushrooms the size of Danny- they had brown bases with green tops, and red spots decorating the green. It also smelled a bit like skunk. Covering his nose in disgust, Danny eyed them once more and continued his path.

He turned around a bend...And froze at the sight before him. There was a glistening lake below him, down the hill he was on top of, and it was about the only place in this forsaken jungle of sorts. The dark trees that covered over Danny's head and everything else stopped at the lake, sunlight streaming down onto the water. Quickly, he ran down without hesitation to the lake, and grinned as he fell to his knees on the beach of the water. Sticking his head in to cool off, he pulled his soaked hair out with a grin. Getting back up, he looked around again, before something caught his eye.

A small, pitch-black cavern was on the other side of the lake, light just about non-existent inside of it. Danny turned to start walking around the lake, determined to save his family, friends, and town. His eyes were forward, straight; determined.

But he failed to notice the flowers on the ground under his feet. As he walked by them, each had a pair of two pitch black eyes open, and stuck two green arms above the ground to pull themselves out. Two legs and feet followed, but Danny didn't notice the possessed flowers start leap-frogging over each other, jump by jump getting closer to Danny. Soon enough, one finally managed to jump onto Danny, knocking him down. Danny cried in surprise and fear as the three flowers opened their mouths to show small incisors, and braced himself to be bitten by a bunch of probably poisonous flowers...

...But nothing happened. Creaking an eye open, he noticed that the flowers all got their teeth stuck in the leather, squealing and shaking back and forth in attempt to get free. Danny only snorted and pulled the thermos from his side, and sucked the three flowers in. Wincing, he got up and briefly stared at the holes in the ground left by the flowers, and continued walking closer and closer to the cavern.

Soon, he found himself outside of the devoid, seemingly endless cave. Taking a deep breath in, he stumbled in, and began to walk step by step through the darkness, feeling damp soil beneath his feet, and hot humidity in the air. When he was, apparently, in the middle of the room, sunlight burst through the ceiling, a few vines that were previously hidden by a veil of darkness moving back to allow sun in enough for visibility. Danny heard some creaking and stretching, and when he turned around to look, he saw that the entrance was now blocked off by a large growth of vines.

"Danny?!" Was heard from his right. Quickly turning, he gasped and paled at who called him.

"Mom! Dad! Jazz! Sam and Tuck!" He cried, running up and griping his parent's loose hands who looked worried but relieved at the same time at the sight of their son. Looking around, he realized the entire population of Amity Park was tied to the wall along with his family and friends with vines.

"Danny, how...?" Jack started.

"Why are you...Oh, sweetheart!" Maddie cried, and gave Danny a quick kiss to the top of his head. Blushing, he started.

"The beast left me in town an-" He was stopped by rumbling, creaking, and shaking of the ground. The town cried in fear and surprise, and the Pursquash jumped out from the middle of the room, and glared at Danny with his beady black and blood-red eyes, ready to fight.

"Danny! Don't-" The rest of Jack's cries to his son fell upon deaf ears as Danny ran forward, hand pulling out sword and shield to fight for his and his town's life.

**Hah! A cliffie! You all hate me for this, don't you? Anyhow, I worked on this in my notebook during 'Freshman Activities' which was basically four hours (Really. Four hours.) in the gym listening to stuff that was kinda blah. There was one good part, and that's about it.**

**And I don't own DP! Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Danny ran toward the Pursquash, intending to do some direct damage, before it sank into the ground. Danny stared at where it disappeared, and looked around, but among all the tall grass in the cave, Danny failed to notice two vines like whips coming toward him, until the hit his ankles and knocked him down.

Wincing, Danny watched as the vines hit his armor mercilessly, attempting to break through it, as Danny reached for his sword which fell over about a foot away. His arm was being restrained, however, from one of the possessed vines. Danny kicked one of his legs at a vine, which fell back a bit, a little surprised, as Danny managed to kick the other away long enough to grab the sword sitting upright.

Swiping at the first one he kicked, as soon as he cut the top off, the vine turned a sickly brown and withered into nothing. Turning to hit the other, the vine managed to quickly hit him on the cheek, leaving a very nasty scar.

Danny winced in pain, but ignored the township's worried cries, and cut the other one down, which also fell, Pulling himself up, the Pursquash jumped out of the ground again about ten feet away from him.

Danny only glared and put his sword in a threatening stance as he was ready to charge, but the ghost held it's head back ready to strike with it's mouth open like it was taking a large breath, and Danny quickly jumped and rolled out of the way, and turned to see the monstrosity had struck the ground harshly, making the room shake a bit, and was disoriented.

Taking this chance to attack, he ran forward, and with two hands on the handle of the sword, struck it into the top of the Pursquash's head, and pulled it out, plant juices coming out with it. The Pursquash squealing in pain, as Danny quickly landed more attacks on the head to distract it with it's own pain while he ran for the stem.

He began to use the sword to saw off the stem, the monster crying even further. Finally, as one strand of the stem remained, Danny quickly struck the sword down with all his force, and the head fell off, the body and head turning brown, and the monster's cries became quieter and quieter as it finally withered away to nothing.

Danny felt the cold of his ghost powers returning in his center, and all the power coming at once was overwhelming to Danny. As he briefly saw the vines on every person in down disappear, he saw everyone rushing toward him as he fell to his knees, the only thing he could remember before blacking out was his parents and friends sprinting up to him in worry.

Finally, darkness.

* * *

"Oww..." Danny mumbled as his eyes slowly opened. Every part of his body ached, and his head was the worst.

"Danny!!!" He heard cries off. Blinking his eyes open and closed for a moment, his vision became focused finally as he looked around. His family and friends were there, and looking around the room, the blue walls, the soft bed beneath him, model spaceships he'd made littered around, space posters on the wall, he saw he was in his room.

"Oh, sweetheart! Thank God you're alright!" Maddie cried as she, Jack, and Jazz all hugged him. He smiled, taking the hug thankfully, and then his family fell back as Sam and Tucker had their turn giving him a hug.

"Crud, Dude! You're a brave dude, you know that?" Tucker said. Sam gave him a kiss on the forehead, which he blushed at.

"Danny, we're very,_ very_ proud of you! Who knew our son would eventually save the entire town?" Jack said. Danny smiled, while thinking all the same, _"If only you knew I do that every day..."_ Danny thought with a smile.

"You're so cool, little brother!" Jazz said, griping him tight again. Pulling back, though, Jack and Maddie's faces all grew serious.

**"DON'T YOU _EVER_ PULL ANYTHING LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!!! It was NOT fun bandaging that scar on your cheek!" **They shouted at top of their lungs. Danny winced, grabbed at the scar, and sat back.

"Oh, c'mon! You would all be dead right now if I didn't go and save everyone!" He protested. His parents then shared a look, before their eyes turned back to Danny.

"Alright...Fine. We won't punish you this time, but don't do that ever again." Maddie said firmly, crossing her arms. "And, we'll talk more about this later, but right now, you're wanted at the town hall." She finished. Smiling, he nodded as his parents left, secret parental pride oozing from every pore. Tucker and Sam looked at him once his family left.

"Danny, why didn't you go ghost?" Sam asked. Danny sighed. "I tried that- I couldn't. I looked it up, and apparently, until the one the monster leaves in town defeats it, their greatest weapon is taken away." He sighed. Tucker frowned.

"Dude, are your powers back...?" He asked. Danny closed his eyes in concentration, and a glowing blue line started at his waist, and turned him promptly into Danny Phantom. Opening his eyes, and looking down, all three friends smiled. Turning back, Danny looked relieved.

"Thank goodness." He said.

* * *

The G.A.V. pulled up in front of the Town Hall, where it was seemingly silent. Danny came out in his normal attire with the rest of his family, and heard some murmuring from outside coming from inside the building. Pushing the door open, Danny and the group came in.

Once Danny was inside, all talking seized, and all eyes turned on him. Danny kept his head down shyly as he walked forward, as Mayor Vlad waited. Approaching the podium, Vlad whispered into his ear.

"I'll leave you alone for day, little badger, for saving our lives." Vlad whispered a little sharply. Danny only ignored him as Vlad backed up for Danny to start speaking. Danny wasn't entirely sure what to say. He'd never been a good public speaker, either. His throat became dry; hands sweaty.

"Well...Uhh...Bet you guys never expected me to save you." He said, placing a nervous hand behind his neck. No one said anything.

"The...Monster left me in town for a sporting chance to save you all, and I took the chance. And it worked. Not much past that...Just doing the right thing." He said nervously. The crowd was silent for another moment, before bursting out in cheers and they all started singing 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow!', which Danny blushed at. Dash stood up.

"Fenton! I'm sorry I picked on you, man. I didn't know you would save us all one day. Amity Park's own hero. I don't think many of us had the guts you did." He said. Everyone cheered louder at that. Danny cracked a smile. It wouldn't be terrible being a hero in human form, without them knowing his ghost half.

Then he spotted Mr. Lancer's gaping mouth. "Uhh, sorry to Mr. Lancer for borrowing the armor, sword, and shield from his room. Only proper equipment I could find at the moment." He said, a small grin appearing on his face. Mr. Lancer shook out of it, and only smiled broadly at Danny and clapped. Danny shrugged.

"I don't have more to say, really, past that." He mumbled. The crowd only cheered again proudly. Then Vlad pushed Danny out of the way stubbornly, and spoke into the microphone.

"Due to the demands of most of the town, there will be a statue erected in Daniel's honor." He said, hiding his annoyance. Then he turned to Danny's, Sam's, and Tucker's smirking faces that said one thing only. 'Owned, Vlad!'

* * *

_Later, at the Fenton household..._

The Fentons were examining some of the DNA of the flowers Danny caught. "I wonder why the monster left Danny here..." Maddie mumbled. Jack looked up. "Uhh...Because he's a Fenton?" He responded. Maddie shook her head.

"But, why not either of us? We're more experienced than Danny is...Maybe we need to look this up." She said. Jack nodded, and went over to a computer they kept in the corner of the room, and began to search.

After a few annoying ads, and pages, they found their article. Reading it over, their eyes widened with every word, and eventually turned to look at each other.

"Jack...If Danny was the one left, and his greatest weapon was taken away, but he could still defeat the monster, what is his 'weapon'...?" Maddie asked aloud. Then she and Jack shared a look.

"I have the Fenton fishing line." Jack said.

* * *

_In Danny's room..._

Danny was innocently listening to Humpty Dumpty's new songs, unsuspecting of his parent's plan...His eyes were closed, wrapped up in his own world with the music.

Jack and Maddie tip-toed in with the fishing line, so they didn't disturb Danny while he wasn't paying attention, and Jack quickly wrapped the line around him and the bed so Danny couldn't escape. Jack did it so quickly that he was done when Danny opened his eyes in surprise to see what was going on, as his mom took the earphones out, and turned his music off.

Danny looked up worriedly at them. "What's going on?!" He demanded. Jack shrugged.

"We looked up that ghost you fought, and we know you're hiding something...What 'weapon' did you lose when you went to go fight the ghost, but could still beat it anyways?" Jack asked, crossing his arms firmly.

Danny's eyes filled with panic. "Do I have to answer?" He asked. Silence came from both parents. "I'll take that as a 'yes'." Danny mumbled, annoyed. Then he closed his eyes, and opened them, now hopeful and determined. He always meant to tell his parents, anyhow...

"Will you guys accept me no matter what?" He asked, his voice squeaking a bit due to fear. "Of course, Danny!" Maddie said enthusiastically. Jack nodded his head as well, and Danny took a deep breath.

"Alright. Here goes..." He mumbled, and felt the blue ring form. Ignoring his parent's gasps, it separated, leaving Danny Phantom in it's place. When the transformation was complete, Danny opened his wide green eyes at his gaping, frozen parents.

"...Still accept me...?" He asked, eyes full of worry. His parents didn't respond for a minute, before they came around slowly, and blinked at Danny.

"Danny..." Maddie started numbly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Jack asked, releasing the line and wrapping his son into a hug. Danny looked down.

"I'm half-ghost. I was afraid you guys would experiment on me." He said, accepting his father's hug. Maddie frowned. "We'd always accept you, Danny. No matter what..." She said, and joined in on the hug.

Then they pulled back, all of them starting to grin. "Was it the Fenton portal?" Jack asked. "Mhm." Danny responded. Maddie slapped a hand to her face.

"Of course! Why didn't we notice before?!" She shouted in shock. Danny only smiled.

"Well, it makes me feel better you know now...And there might be something you want to hear about Vlad." He said, malevolence toward Vlad in his eyes.

**I don't own DP! The idea of the Pursquash was a lot from the video game, 'The Darkest Faerie', which I also don't own. Review, please?**


End file.
